According to media reports, Madrid’s President Isabel Díaz Ayuso considered that the recent entry of Andoni Ortuzar, former president of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), onto the board of Movistar+ reflects a political dynamic in which the ruling coalition maintains its unity through common interests in the distribution of positions and control of public and private institutions. This statement was part of a series of news that spread on social networks after learning of Ortuzar’s appointment to the board of Telefónica’s audiovisual subsidiary.
As published by the media, Ayuso pointed out that what unites the Socialist Party, the Basque nationalist parties, the left linked to EH Bildu and the Catalan independents is the search for private benefits and the filling of positions in public organizations and strategic companies, which, in the words of the regional president, is more important than meeting the real needs of Spanish citizens. In his statements, Ayuso explained: “The socialists, the Basque nationalist right, the Bilduetar left, the Catalan independents, from left to right, are united by the love of private interests, the colonization of companies and seats in public institutions.”
The media explained that Ayuso used Ortuzar’s case as an example of a broader practice in national politics in which parties with different ideological positions put aside differences and favor permanence in power through agreements that prioritize the attainment of leadership positions and influence over state and economic resources. For the regional president, the duration and stability of the governing pact in Congress essentially corresponds to the common interest in maintaining shares of power and extending the decision-making capacity of the parties that form the parliamentary majority.
Ayuso’s comments were recorded as insisting that the “unprincipled coalition” was not justified by programmatic agreements or political convictions, but rather by the search for individual benefits for members of parties allied to the executive branch. The media reported that the regional director even described the current situation as the management of a “mafia of minorities at the expense of all Spaniards”, pointing out that, in her view, appointments both in the public sector and in relevant companies are based on premises of partisan distribution and not on criteria of public service or professional merit.
This positioning reiterated Ayuso’s previous questions to the executive of Pedro Sánchez, as the Madrid leader successively targeted the government’s strategy of parliamentary alliances, accusing the coalition partners of neglecting the priority needs of citizens in favor of their internal agendas and conveniences. Media coverage suggested that, according to Ayuso, this dynamic of position distribution challenges both the balance of institutions and confidence in the country’s economy and political leadership.
The appointment of Andoni Ortuzar at Movistar+, owned by Telefónica, thus triggered a new episode in the political confrontation between the government and the Madrid presidency, whose owner interpreted this fact as a symbol of the use of companies and state organizations as instruments of compensation between the members of the majority that supports the national executive, the media reported. Díaz Ayuso concluded his criticism by emphasizing that the situation describes a scenario in which the parties allied to the government maintain their cooperation only because, as he put it, “they are bound by the love of armchairs”, and the issues that, in his opinion, really concern Spanish society remain in the background.
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